Desk Report
Publish: 14 Jul 2022, 12:47 pm
Photo: Collected
Sri Lanka's anti-government
demonstrators were in talks Thursday to hand back official buildings they
seized, protest representatives said, even as they insisted the president and
prime minister both quit in the face of an economic crisis.
Protesters overran President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's palace at the
weekend, forcing him to flee to the Maldives on Wednesday, when activists also
stormed the office of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
The premier, whom Rajapaksa named as acting president in his
absence, has demanded the evacuation of state buildings and instructed security
forces to do "what is necessary to restore order".
A top Buddhist monk supporting the campaign called for the more
than 200-years-old presidential palace to be handed back to authorities and
ensure its valuable art and artefacts were preserved.
"This building is a national treasure and it should be
protected," monk Omalpe Sobitha told reporters. "There must be a
proper audit and the property given back to the state."
Hundreds of thousands have visited the compound since it was
opened out to the public after Rajapaksa fled and his security guards backed
down.
"There is a move to return the buildings back to the
authorities," an activist involved in the #GotaGoHome campaign told AFP.
In a televised address after thousands of people captured his
office in Colombo, Wickremesinghe declared: "Those who go to my office
want to stop me from discharging my responsibilities as acting president.
"We can't allow fascists to take over. That is why I declared
a nationwide emergency and a curfew," he added.
The curfew was lifted at dawn on Thursday, but police said a
soldier and a constable were injured in overnight clashes with protesters
outside the national parliament.
The attempt on the legislature was beaten back, unlike at other
locations where the protesters had spectacular success.
The main hospital in Colombo said about 85 people were admitted
with injuries on Wednesday, with one man suffocating and dying after a tear gas
attack at the premier's office.
Rajapaksa had promised to resign on Wednesday, but there was no
announcement he had done so.
He remained in the Maldives, reportedly awaiting a private jet to
take him, his wife Ioma and two bodyguards to Singapore.
Diplomatic sources said Rajapaksa's attempts to secure a visa to
the United States had been turned down because he had renounced his US
citizenship in 2019 before running for president.
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